God's Will - How does it work?
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Peace everyone.
I have been reflecting on God's will recently.
For years I have spouted the phrase "God is doing everything", and firmly "believed" it. This slogan is often uttered by the so called "submitters" group. Rashad Khalifa preached that everything that happens to anyone at any moment is the will of God, good or bad, and that any choice we make, or action we tale is already recorded, known, and controlled by God. He based this on verse such as 817, 5722, and 6411.
I had many conversations with people in the past regarding this idea, and people asked me questions such as "so when a girl is raped, God is doing that?" or "so when people are abused or mistreated, God is doing that?". My response was always, "God is doing everything, but nothing bad comes from him." I got this again from Khalifa's interpretation of verses 478-79.
So many Muslims say "in sha Allah" when talking about the future. I noticed that the command in sura 18 is regarding saying that you will do something tomorrow, and not necessarily an hour into the future. This makes sense to me as we do not know if we will be alive tomorrow, and that God ultimately controls when our life ends here. However, I would like to know what peoples understanding from the Qur'an is on the subject of God's control in all of our worldly affairs and our day to day well being.
When the Qur'an says anything good is from God and anything bad is from us, does this mean that our health, wealth, and happiness are all given by God on a daily basis through divine interventions or are the good things we enjoy a result of using our God given brains and thanking God? On the other side of things, when bad things happen to us like sickness, accidents, falling out with our friends and family members, are these a punishment from God for committing sins, or are they a result of not using our God given brains and being selfish, etc.?
I once held the belief that God assigns angels to each human to protect them from harm if they are righteous, and these angels basically step aside and let bad things come to us when we sin. I had this understanding again from Khalifa's teachings and interpretations of 1311. Any I believed that when people are bad they "remove themselves from God's protection" and that bad things happen to them because Satan afflicts them, or since they "choose Satan as a lord" he is incapable of taking care of them like God does.
What does everyone think of these ideas from a Qur'anic perspective. I fail to see any evidence for this stuff anymore, but at the same time I don't believe God just created us and sat back to see what we will do. What of divine intervention, miracles, etc.?
Look forward to reading people's ideas from the Qur'an.
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What is bad and what is good? It is necessarily a perspective of the human who consider it. Since our destiny is to return to God, everything is for good, since we will return, each treading our own way, which is the way that God chooses for us. It is nothing to do with predestination but with destination. God creates the whole universe constantly. We are a new creation every second.
I think that what you are pointing out is the question of guilt. Obviously there is room, willed by God that we FEEL that we decide and do, and may be we do decide and do, but we are very predictable. Oviously there is human will in our actions, at least in some of them since we do know that we are guilty when we do deliberately something that we know it is not right. ?Did God do it? At the very least He did let us do it. But is He guilty? Obivouly not, we are His and ultimately He will reward genereously, because He is Al Karim, al Latif... many of his names that will match His power.
If we do not do anything evil deliberately, we should not worry. If we do eveil deliberately we should know that saying that God did it will not avail us a little bit. WE DO KNOW that about ourselves, although many times, pischological conditionning leads to feel that we are guiltier than we are in fact. But we can be guilty. God never is guilty, he is the Creator and the Master and our ultimate destiny. We do not get anything out of shoving our guilt on Him. We we are raped, we know He will punish, with the most matching punishment, the raper and he will reward the raped with His outmost mercy. He says so. No soul will be wronged a dot. We might say that it would be better if we are raped because the reward of God will be matched, but that would be ugly. If God, does not want somebody to be raped, then that someone must be happy with whatever God has alloted to him or her. That is islam, self delivery to God, acknowledging that we are His, that He does not owe us anything, we are His. And this is also the best relief for our troubles or sorrows. He is the master and everything will square. He knows, He can. We just say we are your serfs, we are yours, and that is the greatest treasure.
I don't know Jtc whether I have answered you question, but that is what it suggests to me. At any rate as always this kind of question may not receive a satisfactory answer on our part, but it does help us to understand and to ponder our meaning and destiny.
Salaam
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So many Muslims say "in sha Allah" when talking about the future. I noticed that the command in sura 18 is regarding saying that you will do something tomorrow, and not necessarily an hour into the future. This makes sense to me as we do not know if we will be alive tomorrow, and that God ultimately controls when our life ends here. However, I would like to know what peoples understanding from the Qur'an is on the subject of God's control in all of our worldly affairs and our day to day well being.
The command does not say "in shaa allah". It says "illa an yashaa allah". One is a conditional past tense. The other is an exceptional conditional present tense. I would suggest looking at all the occurrences of the verb "shaa" and their present and past tense in relation to certain actions. This occurs with amazing consistency in the quran. This may provide a clue as to what may be predestined and what is not.
Peace,
Ayman
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Salam Ayman,
What do you make of ayat like 2/70, 12/99 and 18/69 which uses the phrase 'inshaa Allah' ?
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Peace brother
What do you make of ayat like 2/70, 12/99 and 18/69 which uses the phrase 'inshaa Allah' ?
We need to look at the action associated with "shaa".
In 270, it is guidance. In all the passages talking about guidance the verb "yashaa" is in the present tense except 270. In 270 note that those who said "in shaa allah" are the people of Moses who were not sincere about obeying the god.
Unlike 270, which talks about present guidance, 1299 and 1869 talk about future outcomes.
Our choices we have control over but future outcomes we have no control over. It is like a fork at the road and you have a choice which path to take but you have no control over what you find at the end of the path.
Peace,
Ayman
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On the other side of things, when bad things happen to us like sickness, accidents, falling out with our friends and family members, are these a punishment from God for committing sins, or are they a result of not using our God given brains and being selfish, etc.?
I agree alot with what huruf has said.
and
I think it is important to realize that it is not necessarily easy to understand what 'God does' means. If we cannot grasp God, then it might be difficult to grasp 'God does'. God is not a person, so 'God does' is not similar to 'James does'... I think it is a matter of totally different 'does' but our brains and intellects are fooled because the words used are the same. Thinking about what God does, thinks, likes etc is not so straightforward as we might think. If we cannot associate anything known with God (in order not to be mistaken) then we can begin to see the trickyness in connecting verbs with that which is called God.
I also believe that all that happens is because of us, in the sense that it is up to us to shape up and move towards truth, and in the sense that nothing unfair will happen to us on the grand scale (God will not f*** with us and send us hardship unfairly. God and Gods system of reality has no randomness or injustice built in). Furthermore, all the happens to us is because of God, or God 'does it', simply since we exist in a reality with rules and laws that are of God, and in this sense God has indeed caused/causes all to happen. But we must not think of it as God being a separate character who either intervenes from 'outside', or who has set all in motion and taken a step back... actually, it is more likely that neither is accurate... and we cannot grasp God so we cannot grasp the mechanisms of events happening.... and what is the need anyway? We only need to understand the principle of cause and effect.
One important question is, WHY are YOU here? Aren't you here for YOUR sake only? That is, to learn how to get back to God? Isn't it actually then ALL about just you and God, while the rest of creation is only that which you get to act and develop through... the medium? All that happens to you then, must have a purpose. If you use the events of your life (including the horrible ones) to bring you closer to peace and God, then you are being successful.... otherwise you are wasting time and going astray, away from God.
Siratal-mustaqim does not bring forth an image of a well-defined and exclusive group that possess THE way to salvation, like a religion, a club of the enlightened and holy ones. No, such a group, with a defensive boundary against outsiders/ignorant/lost/disbelievers/hell-bound... is an image of something very static. Siratal-mustaqim however brings forth an image of a path that is straight that you walk along... that is, it is a direction which involves movement forward... and movement forward takes effort and work... and is not static at all. Our life should ideally be aligned like a straight path, a path towards truth and peace... towards God. Our life is a journey, and all that happens to us is of use to us, if we just could see it. Unpleasent things are only bad if we waste them or let them lead us astray... but it is actually us who shape an event into good or bad. The event may be pleasent or horrible, but whether it is good or not for us depends entirely on how we react to it... whether we let it guide us or blind us.
If everyone just realized that it is I who have to LEARN something, I who have to PURIFY myself, as opposite to just claim to already know what's right and think that this "knowledge" is enough to "save" me... static... then we would not be so particular about what other people think and believe... and we would be much more keen on making sure to continuously learn more... consciously avoid complacency and statc mindsets. We would become more humble, tolerant and understanding.... less arrogant. We are all here to GROW and to learn to stop resisting/rejecting. We are not here to KNOW. Just like in a school... no-one is there to know, but rather to come to know, to learn, or perhaps remember what we once knew. That's totally different mindsets. Unfortunately, when we don't evolve/change/grow/move, we decay and die...
So what does God do? Well, what does 'do' mean in the context of God? First we have to ponder THIS. Actually, our entire perception of life and the world seems to be extremely dependent on our image of God.
This is atleast my current take on this. My take on things do change over time, but this is a snapshot of my current understanding of things.
Cheers to all
O0 -
salaam jtc
thank you for sharing your thoughts
you pointed to one of the most difficults points in islam. Answer need books and not posts.
obviously, you obtained some contradictions. But is cannot be.at each ejaculation, spermatozoa are millions in a race where only one earns the right to enter an egg. When we say that God knows future , that means that God knows who is the winner of each race and that he willed ta the winner will win.
We are also asked to believe that when the winner spermatozoa will be adult, God will will and will know what happens at each ejaculation.i can multiply samples. Knowing future is impossible. So future cannot exists for God. What we call time should be, for me, a creation only for human.
Concept of God Will is linked to , as you said, to idea that God is watching us while time is passing. It cannot be true.
future already exists. It is already written. Quran said that (6-59,10-61,11-6,27-75,34-3).it is difficult for us to conceive something where time, past and future as we understand it don't exists.
The simplest way is to imagine a novel where the writer put a story. As long as the book is not published, the writer can change any page and adjust the following pages to make the story coherent.Concept of God Will is also opposed to concept of human will. If all what happen is God Will then human will and free choice have no sense.
It is again a contradiction. But contradiction cannot be.Again, when we read a published novel, nobody contest that the personages inside it have free will.
Things are a little more complicated when the noveler is God himself.
The published version of history of earth we are playing is agreed by God and take into account all the wills.
God have already choosed and adjusted the final he wantsNow, you pointed another problem. The girl rape is a problem of injustice. Why injustice exists and why God allowed it ? Why published version of Earth contains injustice ?
but this is another problem. It is linked to the question why we are here and to many other complicated questionsPeace
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Peace Ayman.
I've never been very good with grammar and tenses. What do you believe 1823-24 is saying then? I tried to look up the word "shaa", but there are so many occurrences, and I can't really understand the differences in terms of what I was saying.
I think people may have missed my point, probably because I am also not the most eloquent individual. I guess it's more a question of God's interference/intervention or control over every aspect of our lives. If the future is already known to God, does that mean He knows what will happen, or that He will control what happens or doesn't happen? If a person puts in all his/her effort to accomplish a certain goal, does that even matter or make a difference if God does not will for that goal to be fulfilled?
It's a hard topic to articulate for me, but I feel like people use "God's will" as a cop out to evade responsibility quite often or they expect God to basically interfere in every minute detail of their lives. Maybe He does, I'm not sure, but I don't want to say things about God which make no sense.
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God technically does everything, either directly or through a medium like man or weather, but lots of what God does is based on the conditions His creations fulfill. For example, if you fulfill the condition of repeatedly rejecting His signs He will make a cover over your heart. If you fulfill the condition of exercising, He will make you stronger. Sometimes things may happen to you because of a condition fulfilled by someone or something else, outside of your control. In that case the hardship is an opportunity for you.
That's how I see it.
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Peace JTC,
Peace Ayman.
I've never been very good with grammar and tenses. What do you believe 1823-24 is saying then? I tried to look up the word "shaa", but there are so many occurrences, and I can't really understand the differences in terms of what I was saying.
I think people may have missed my point, probably because I am also not the most eloquent individual. I guess it's more a question of God's interference/intervention or control over every aspect of our lives. If the future is already known to God, does that mean He knows what will happen, or that He will control what happens or doesn't happen? If a person puts in all his/her effort to accomplish a certain goal, does that even matter or make a difference if God does not will for that goal to be fulfilled?
It's a hard topic to articulate for me, but I feel like people use "God's will" as a cop out to evade responsibility quite often or they expect God to basically interfere in every minute detail of their lives. Maybe He does, I'm not sure, but I don't want to say things about God which make no sense.1823-24 uses the present tense exceptional conditional in reference to what a person is intending to do in the future to indicate that whether he does it or not is no predestined but he has a choice. Also, as an exception, the god can interfere in the choice.
Generally, if we look at the present and past tense of shaa associated with various actions, we will see a pattern showing that we have free choice amongst limited number of alternatives but we have no control over the outcome of our choice.
Peace,
Ayman
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I agree alot with what huruf has said.
and
I think it is important to realize that it is not necessarily easy to understand what 'God does' means. If we cannot grasp God, then it might be difficult to grasp 'God does'. God is not a person, so 'God does' is not similar to 'James does'... I think it is a matter of totally different 'does' but our brains and intellects are fooled because the words used are the same. Thinking about what God does, thinks, likes etc is not so straightforward as we might think. If we cannot associate anything known with God (in order not to be mistaken) then we can begin to see the trickyness in connecting verbs with that which is called God.
I also believe that all that happens is because of us, in the sense that it is up to us to shape up and move towards truth, and in the sense that nothing unfair will happen to us on the grand scale (God will not f*** with us and send us hardship unfairly. God and Gods system of reality has no randomness or injustice built in). Furthermore, all the happens to us is because of God, or God 'does it', simply since we exist in a reality with rules and laws that are of God, and in this sense God has indeed caused/causes all to happen. But we must not think of it as God being a separate character who either intervenes from 'outside', or who has set all in motion and taken a step back... actually, it is more likely that neither is accurate... and we cannot grasp God so we cannot grasp the mechanisms of events happening.... and what is the need anyway? We only need to understand the principle of cause and effect.
One important question is, WHY are YOU here? Aren't you here for YOUR sake only? That is, to learn how to get back to God? Isn't it actually then ALL about just you and God, while the rest of creation is only that which you get to act and develop through... the medium? All that happens to you then, must have a purpose. If you use the events of your life (including the horrible ones) to bring you closer to peace and God, then you are being successful.... otherwise you are wasting time and going astray, away from God.
Siratal-mustaqim does not bring forth an image of a well-defined and exclusive group that possess THE way to salvation, like a religion, a club of the enlightened and holy ones. No, such a group, with a defensive boundary against outsiders/ignorant/lost/disbelievers/hell-bound... is an image of something very static. Siratal-mustaqim however brings forth an image of a path that is straight that you walk along... that is, it is a direction which involves movement forward... and movement forward takes effort and work... and is not static at all. Our life should ideally be aligned like a straight path, a path towards truth and peace... towards God. Our life is a journey, and all that happens to us is of use to us, if we just could see it. Unpleasent things are only bad if we waste them or let them lead us astray... but it is actually us who shape an event into good or bad. The event may be pleasent or horrible, but whether it is good or not for us depends entirely on how we react to it... whether we let it guide us or blind us.
If everyone just realized that it is I who have to LEARN something, I who have to PURIFY myself, as opposite to just claim to already know what's right and think that this "knowledge" is enough to "save" me... static... then we would not be so particular about what other people think and believe... and we would be much more keen on making sure to continuously learn more... consciously avoid complacency and statc mindsets. We would become more humble, tolerant and understanding.... less arrogant. We are all here to GROW and to learn to stop resisting/rejecting. We are not here to KNOW. Just like in a school... no-one is there to know, but rather to come to know, to learn, or perhaps remember what we once knew. That's totally different mindsets. Unfortunately, when we don't evolve/change/grow/move, we decay and die...
So what does God do? Well, what does 'do' mean in the context of God? First we have to ponder THIS. Actually, our entire perception of life and the world seems to be extremely dependent on our image of God.
This is atleast my current take on this. My take on things do change over time, but this is a snapshot of my current understanding of things.
Cheers to all
O0I would like to comment something regarding this SiraT al mustaqim.
I am afraid some of the content of that SiraT gets lost in translation. It ook me time to realise it. It is not merely the straight path. It is the vertical path, the ascending path. I mean it can be ascending or descending, but being the way back to our Source, in the context of Al fatiha it is obviously ascending. Which coherently recalls the typical christian images of resurrection and ascension. It comes from the same root, q-w-m, as qiyyama, qayyum, qawwam, its root meaning is to stand up, rise... I copy from Project root-list
stand still or firm, rose/stand up, managed/conducted/ordered/regulated/superintended, established, made it straight/right, maintain/erect/observe/perform, set up, people/community/company, abode, stature/dignity/rank. aqama - to keep a thing or an affair in a right state.
So, when we, repating the fatiha, implore that God guides us on the SiraT al mostaqim, we ask to take the ascending straight way back to Him. We feel immediatly the images that idea evoques, among those who have been raised or who have lived in christian environments, the idea as I pointed put, comes close to the Christ's ascension, and really makes us see that even the Gospels and even for christians may not be talking about any physical ascension into the stratosphere and so on... and that Christ is a symbol of the man who walks the SiraT al mostaqim.
In the fatiha de there other two SiraT, the SiraT of those who strayed and the SiraT of thsoe who evoqued the terrible Names of God, thos of ghadb.
But all SiraT go back to Him, because as the Qur'an says repeatedly IlaHe al maSir.
My deduction of it is that the SiraT al mostaqim is the most pleasurable, spiritually and physically and mentally more pleasurable of the Sirat, the SiraT of the nafs al- muTma'inna of aya 89.27
O you tranquil soul, (27) Return to your Lord, well-pleased and well-pleasing Him. (2 "Enter then among My votaries, (29) Enter then My garden." (30).
And concerning the gist of the question of the thread. I do not know does God really wants some people to tread one way rather than other?
Obviously God wants us to ask things from him. That is why the Qur'an starts with a prayer, he wants us to pray, to ask Him for things, the best things. We must not ignore Him, we are made for Love, and who who love wants things, want everything. So may be that is what it is about whether we want to know Him and love him from the beginning or want to recognize him only when there is no way out of it. Because if we ask Him, He will answer. And we know what to ask and we know on which names we should call. We must not evoque His names of might, but His names of mercy. We do not want to experience the names of might without the names of mercy. That in fact would be hell.
Salaam
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Peace brother
We need to look at the action associated with "shaa".
In 270, it is guidance. In all the passages talking about guidance the verb "yashaa" is in the present tense except 270. In 270 note that those who said "in shaa allah" are the people of Moses who were not sincere about obeying the god.
Unlike 270, which talks about present guidance, 1299 and 1869 talk about future outcomes.
Our choices we have control over but future outcomes we have no control over. It is like a fork at the road and you have a choice which path to take but you have no control over what you find at the end of the path.
Peace,
Ayman
Aha thank you, that is what I call a Quranic argument. Need to reformulate my understanding of sha'aa then )
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I agree alot with what huruf has said.
and
I think it is important to realize that it is not necessarily easy to understand what 'God does' means. If we cannot grasp God, then it might be difficult to grasp 'God does'. God is not a person, so 'God does' is not similar to 'James does'... I think it is a matter of totally different 'does' but our brains and intellects are fooled because the words used are the same. Thinking about what God does, thinks, likes etc is not so straightforward as we might think. If we cannot associate anything known with God (in order not to be mistaken) then we can begin to see the trickyness in connecting verbs with that which is called God.
I also believe that all that happens is because of us, in the sense that it is up to us to shape up and move towards truth, and in the sense that nothing unfair will happen to us on the grand scale (God will not f*** with us and send us hardship unfairly. God and Gods system of reality has no randomness or injustice built in). Furthermore, all the happens to us is because of God, or God 'does it', simply since we exist in a reality with rules and laws that are of God, and in this sense God has indeed caused/causes all to happen. But we must not think of it as God being a separate character who either intervenes from 'outside', or who has set all in motion and taken a step back... actually, it is more likely that neither is accurate... and we cannot grasp God so we cannot grasp the mechanisms of events happening.... and what is the need anyway? We only need to understand the principle of cause and effect.
One important question is, WHY are YOU here? Aren't you here for YOUR sake only? That is, to learn how to get back to God? Isn't it actually then ALL about just you and God, while the rest of creation is only that which you get to act and develop through... the medium? All that happens to you then, must have a purpose. If you use the events of your life (including the horrible ones) to bring you closer to peace and God, then you are being successful.... otherwise you are wasting time and going astray, away from God.
Siratal-mustaqim does not bring forth an image of a well-defined and exclusive group that possess THE way to salvation, like a religion, a club of the enlightened and holy ones. No, such a group, with a defensive boundary against outsiders/ignorant/lost/disbelievers/hell-bound... is an image of something very static. Siratal-mustaqim however brings forth an image of a path that is straight that you walk along... that is, it is a direction which involves movement forward... and movement forward takes effort and work... and is not static at all. Our life should ideally be aligned like a straight path, a path towards truth and peace... towards God. Our life is a journey, and all that happens to us is of use to us, if we just could see it. Unpleasent things are only bad if we waste them or let them lead us astray... but it is actually us who shape an event into good or bad. The event may be pleasent or horrible, but whether it is good or not for us depends entirely on how we react to it... whether we let it guide us or blind us.
If everyone just realized that it is I who have to LEARN something, I who have to PURIFY myself, as opposite to just claim to already know what's right and think that this "knowledge" is enough to "save" me... static... then we would not be so particular about what other people think and believe... and we would be much more keen on making sure to continuously learn more... consciously avoid complacency and statc mindsets. We would become more humble, tolerant and understanding.... less arrogant. We are all here to GROW and to learn to stop resisting/rejecting. We are not here to KNOW. Just like in a school... no-one is there to know, but rather to come to know, to learn, or perhaps remember what we once knew. That's totally different mindsets. Unfortunately, when we don't evolve/change/grow/move, we decay and die...
So what does God do? Well, what does 'do' mean in the context of God? First we have to ponder THIS. Actually, our entire perception of life and the world seems to be extremely dependent on our image of God.
This is atleast my current take on this. My take on things do change over time, but this is a snapshot of my current understanding of things.
Cheers to all
O0Nice comments....for more theoretical study of the issue in hand, I would suggest all to read the BOOK OF DESTINY by Allama Parwez, which can be downloaded from www.resurgentislam.com
http//resurgentislam.com/wp-content/uploads/Kitab-ul-Taqdeer-Book+of+Destiny+by+GA+Parwez.pdf
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Hi Everyone,
When I think of Allah's will, I think of what Allah wants me to do. I have free will to do whatever I choose. However it may be in direct conflict with Allah's will. In that case, Allah will choose another vehicle/person to do what he wants. Then I loose the ability to be an instrument of Allah and become closer to Allah. By choosing Allah's will we gain closeness to Allah and when we are close to Allah we are even more likely to do his will. It is a spectacular spiral.
Just my crazy thoughts...
JewishDude
peace Salam, Shalom, Peace peace -
Peace everyone.
I have been reflecting on God's will recently.
For years I have spouted the phrase "God is doing everything", and firmly "believed" it. This slogan is often uttered by the so called "submitters" group. Rashad Khalifa preached that everything that happens to anyone at any moment is the will of God, good or bad, and that any choice we make, or action we tale is already recorded, known, and controlled by God. He based this on verse such as 817, 5722, and 6411.
I had many conversations with people in the past regarding this idea, and people asked me questions such as "so when a girl is raped, God is doing that?" or "so when people are abused or mistreated, God is doing that?". My response was always, "God is doing everything, but nothing bad comes from him." I got this again from Khalifa's interpretation of verses 478-79.
So many Muslims say "in sha Allah" when talking about the future. I noticed that the command in sura 18 is regarding saying that you will do something tomorrow, and not necessarily an hour into the future. This makes sense to me as we do not know if we will be alive tomorrow, and that God ultimately controls when our life ends here. However, I would like to know what peoples understanding from the Qur'an is on the subject of God's control in all of our worldly affairs and our day to day well being.
When the Qur'an says anything good is from God and anything bad is from us, does this mean that our health, wealth, and happiness are all given by God on a daily basis through divine interventions or are the good things we enjoy a result of using our God given brains and thanking God? On the other side of things, when bad things happen to us like sickness, accidents, falling out with our friends and family members, are these a punishment from God for committing sins, or are they a result of not using our God given brains and being selfish, etc.?
I once held the belief that God assigns angels to each human to protect them from harm if they are righteous, and these angels basically step aside and let bad things come to us when we sin. I had this understanding again from Khalifa's teachings and interpretations of 1311. Any I believed that when people are bad they "remove themselves from God's protection" and that bad things happen to them because Satan afflicts them, or since they "choose Satan as a lord" he is incapable of taking care of them like God does.
What does everyone think of these ideas from a Qur'anic perspective. I fail to see any evidence for this stuff anymore, but at the same time I don't believe God just created us and sat back to see what we will do. What of divine intervention, miracles, etc.?
Look forward to reading people's ideas from the Qur'an.
Peace, jtc
Before the humans were created, and before the earth and the sky were created, and before the earth and the sky are separated from each other, there was an atmosphere of haze and blaze of fire, in the space. While the blazing fire being the source of creation and the abode of Jinns, the haze of smoke is the atmosphere of the jinns to breathe for its living. The Jinns were living in the paradise but in most of their minds were the rejection of God, thankless ness, idolatry, hypocrisy, treacherousness and disbelief. Allah chose messengers from among them too but their admonitions fell in deaf ears and that they only increased their rejection and hypocrisy. Now the warning of Allah finally arrives that if they do not mend and become obedient slaves of Allah, they would be thrown away and would bring a creative generation in their place who would be above them in everything. The messengers from among the Jinns kept bringing to their people, the Quranic ayats and the Signs of Allah, until Allah began unfolding His Design of Man's abode.
At the time the earth and the sky was created, it was a paradise wherein every grace of Allah had been poured in beyond measure and had been a spectacle to the eyes of the Jinns. But as per His Design, Allah placed the human creation on it, the most beautiful dwelling place, the paradise; and this was an eyesore for the jinns. Allah said to Man "Go forth in this paradise where you want and eat of what you want but never usurp the timber, meant for all the beings on the earth, induced by the whisperings of shaitaan, lest you should be one of them and thus become of the unjust. Yet man faltered and fell to jinns and became of the rejecters and of the disbelievers and thus became of each other.
Before Allah conferred and destined the Most Gracious Benevolence upon man i.e., conferring the Reign of Arsh upon the man, He called out to the earth and the skies to come together either willingly or unwillingly in obedience to man. They both said We are willingly coming together for the man. Then Allah ordained upon the skies and the earth, the Quran in detail, with which they both shall assess discreetly and diligently the works of man on the earth in accordance with the Quran in their moment to moment life. Then Allah shaped man to a perfect creation with Criterion i.e., with the ability to distinguishing and taught him the Quran, the Guidance to Justice and with that He set man upon the Arsh.
55 1 The Most Gracious, The Most Benevolent
55 2 He taught the Quran to the Arsh, the skies and the earth and everything in between
55 3 He created man in righteous perfection to handle the Arsh
55 4 And He explained man, how the paradise would become a servant unto him, if he followed The Guidance perfect.And with this, He raised mankind as Adam and taught him what is in the skies and in the earth and what is in between; and how they would respond to his needs and his actions; if he goes against the Quran, the skies and the earth would not obey him; and if he is in accordance with Quran and fearing Allah, stick to righteousness while seeking forgiveness all the time, then he is upon the Arsh. The heavens and the skies and everything in between would obey his need and orders, and the paradise would grow more splendorous for him, ever.
The instances to this when Ibrahim was thrown into the pit fire, the heat of fire changed to one of cool comfort; when Nuh prayed, the heavens and the earth opened up to drown the world; when Musa cast his shaft, the sea cleaved into two mountainous parts, creating dry land in between; when Dawood made iron into molten fluid; and to Sulaiman, the wind, the birds, the ants, the jinns, the malayika and Allah knows what more were with him - everything from heavens down to earth obeyed to his command. This is because all were upon the Guidance of Quran and the heavens and the skies were taught Quran before and whatever the wish of man, if he is righteous and his life is in accordance with Quran, the skies and the earth come together to deliver him of his want. The Arsh, including the guardians of it, the malayika obey him, by His leave. On the other hand, if man does not follow Quran, then, he shall follow shaitaan and shaitan follows him and pushes him to hell of a life in this world itself.
And a man's life toggles between the two extreme situations and conditions i.e. between the life of paradise and the life of hell; and struggles through all the elements, justly proportioned - of hardship, leisure and pleasure between the two, throughout his life. Either he shall rule over the Arsh with Quran, or the Arsh will finish you with earthquakes, volcanos, tsunamis, diseases, famine, floods, blood, madness to say a few.
45 22 And Allah created the heavens and the earth on the truthful guidance of Quran, so that every man shall be recompensed for what he did and that they will not be wronged.
Let us know for sure now, both the jinns in their abode of haze; and the human beings in their abode of clear atmosphere of air, living in their respective places for millions of years of generations after generations, usurping the timber and engaging in land grabbing fighting and shedding blood and losing lives over them, all being done in the abode of paradise. Jinns were much pleased to have the men at each other's throat and settled their envy against them for Allah having designed such a beautiful place as dwelling place for the human beings. Allah is well-aware of what is in their hearts.
Allah's next design is to reveal the supremacy of the man, created of the muddy-clay, against the jinns created of the blaze of fire. Toward this end, the jinns had in their hearts, the evil racist discrimination and always looked down upon man; and having made men fall to their inducements they were content with their blood-shed and losses of their lives. Allah said to the assembly of Malayika and Jinns I am going to place man on the earth as My viceroy; and all of you have to serve the man.
While the Malayikas obeyed Allah and obeyed His Will, the jinns said "Are you going to place as Your Viceroy, such as these on the earth who cause mischief and shed blood, while we praise your glory and purify Your Names?" Allah said, "You know not what I know." Then Allah taught man all that is in the heavens and in the earth and everything in between and thus brought everything under man's command. This teaching to man of the wisdom of power includes the knowledge of Malayika; the inns and out of, who and what the jinns are; and how to bring them all under man's control and obedience by the leave of Allah. Knowing very well the disobedience of the jinns Allah brings man before the jinns and malayikas for the test. The ignorance and the inferiority of the jinns before man were made clear to both the malayika and the jinns. The malayika began obeying the man, but the jinns under the command of Iblis, the leader of the jinns, disobeyed; and Allah was keenly watching this disobedience of jinns.
Allah waited relenting and forgiving the jinns and Iblis, for a long time as it is not His Way to punish then and there for the sins but destines a term appointed. The appointed time came and the jinns were brought before Adam, the knowledgeable Man, the Viceroy of Allah on the Earth, before the assembly of malayika and Allah said to the jinns "O Jinns! Why did you not obey the command of Man while I ordered you to do so." To this the leader among the rejecting jinn community, Iblis said "I am not to obey the man; see how measly-looking he is; I am not to obey a man who is created out of clay while I was created out of the blaze of fire; and I am superior to him." At this point Allah said "Are you proud to say so? If that be it there is no place for such arrogant proud in this paradise. Stay out of my blessed place, you Iblis, as shaitaan! Thus the proud, arrogant and racist-minded people became the companions of shaitaan on the earth.
Allah created the earth in the space and cleared the haze, the major area of the dwelling place of Jinns, into clear atmosphere of air for man to breathe his life energy. The haze for jinn's life, and the clear space of air for the man's life are thus separated. In the clear space and air, the Jinns would choke to death; and in the haze and smoke men would choke to death. One cannot seek the guidance from the other. Yet, the men who always sought and acquired the power of fire, and the knowledge of fire from the jinns which ranges from the voodoo and witchcraft to technology of science that which involves the fiery force of heat and fire which is nothing but terrible speed and absolute destruction.
As man's soul has the capacity to imbibe the cosmic wisdom, to keep up his command over the entire creative force from heavens down to earth, given only to drive the shaitaans away from the vicinity of the earth's atmosphere, he shall live with fear for Allah, seeking forgiveness all the while we are conscious. If we fall to the inducements of shaitaan, he will get closest to you showing his glamorous material scientific knowledge and enticing you with his fire technology to the utter destruction of the world. Now for man, it is his choice between the knowledge of shaitan, the science of destruction of the worldly wealth, or the Wisdom of Allah that would elevate your dwelling place, the earth, to the glory of a paradise.
Men among humans mostly had secret dealings with the men among the jinns for all destructive activities only to unjustly rule over the fellow human beings, towards which cause the jinns helped the men a lot by causing hatred and divisions among the humans. Because jinn have such physical speed and ability, taught them all the fiery things and fiery mentality. The human beings slowly gained mastery over all the evils of shaitan, and fell a prey for them and also started praying to them and fell prostrated before them as Gods.
At this point of men shaking hands with the evil Jinns and become hand in gloves against Allah, Allah says to all "Get ye all down; this would not be paradise ready-made for you anymore; its splendour would go; your evil nature would grow evil nature around you. Yet My intuition shall be with you as to what you need and what you do not need; as to what you shall lovingly adhere to and what you shall hatefully avoid. To the one's who would adhere to the former, the elements of the life of paradise is what he would earn; and to the one's who would adhere to the latter, the elements of hellish life is what would be added on to. Those who think and reflect and show thanks to Allah and stand steadfast with Him, for being endowed with the Criterion, they are surely ascending towards heavenly life even while living on this earth.
Upon such people, the Malayikas descend with the word of Allah, and would say, "Be well-contented with the paradise that Allah had promised you; we Malayikas are friends unto you from now on, in this world and the world next.
But hose majority who had failed to give thanks and stayed away from Remembering Allah, to them are the Jinns and the companions of shaitaan, the most evil of the companions in this world; and in the hereafter, they will jointly enter the hell. They instead of making their hearts as sacred place where alone the remembrance and reverence of Allah is possible would abstain from it. Yet they would invent places of worship and sacred places for pilgrimage.
Thus the temples, mosques and churches and various other places of worship began under the auspices of satans, the worst disbelievers and the leaders among the jinns. In such worshiping places of satans, the fire and smoke is essential for them to survive; so in temples of Hindus, alighting and worshiping of fire is an essential part of prayer; in Churches, alighting candle is an integral aspect of worshiping; and in most fundamentalist sunni mosques of eastern countries the smoke of various scented incense sticks is burnt while chanting rhymes in praise of Muhammad.
fazlur rahman
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Rashad Khalifa preached that everything that happens to anyone at any moment is the will of God, good or bad, and that any choice we make, or action we tale is already recorded, known, and controlled by God. He based this on verse such as 817, 5722, and 6411.
In my opinion Rashad Khalifa interpreted too much to his own liking.
My take is more along the lines of you can do good and if you don't it's your own fault. What goes around, comes around.
I totally understand your approach and also understand why it is appealing, I don't think that you can argue for an all powerful god creating everything that is good, but diseases, poisons, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, hail, radiation, droughts, tornadoes, epidemics, lightning, floods, avalanches, fires, asteroids, etc. are not.
What I find odd is that whenever a breakthrough in something is achieved, it is never through the help of religion but sheer human endeavour. No matter whether humans break the sound-barrier, replace faulty livers, fill broken teeth, prepare vaccines, fit artificial limbs or attach lightning rods, it always seems as though humans have managed to understand and manage what is happening around them.
We never have a finger or any limb for that matter grow back after it had to be removed. We have faulty DNA killing us and no cure for cancer is in sight - until humans develop it. When humans have developed a cure for something isn't it a bit cheap to then claim that a god did the positive thing and provide the cure when countless humans have suffered for 1000s of years from the defect?
If there really is a god with a will and a plan, can we ever be privy to it?
I had to smile when I read about your story with the angels as I had the exact same picture in my head when I was younger.
I remember I was quite annoyed when someone came up with the joke never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly, because I thought it was like an insult to my personal guardian angel. But then I was a good boy and still broke my arm, almost lost a leg and had Malaria. That's when I thought about this and didn't find the expected fairness. So I don't see the same thing in the Koran as you do. I see it more of a guide where people extract comfort and hope in difficult situations. It provides super-natural justice as a personal feeling of balance which we don't find here in reality. It simply relies on faith. -
In my opinion Rashad Khalifa interpreted too much to his own liking.
My take is more along the lines of you can do good and if you don't it's your own fault. What goes around, comes around.
I totally understand your approach and also understand why it is appealing, I don't think that you can argue for an all powerful god creating everything that is good, but diseases, poisons, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, hail, radiation, droughts, tornadoes, epidemics, lightning, floods, avalanches, fires, asteroids, etc. are not.
What goes around, comes around is a good joke if you fail to explain the reason based on the joke, behind your list of bad and evil and much more that afflict man, time and again, with proof of eliminating all those adversities. What do you think your fault is that you could not stop all such catastrophes? Please confess your faults.
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What goes around, comes around is a good joke if you fail to explain the reason based on the joke, behind your list of bad and evil and much more that afflict man, time and again, with proof of eliminating all those adversities. What do you think your fault is that you could not stop all such catastrophes? Please confess your faults.
Maybe there is something profound and interesting on god's will in your words - but I don't understand anything you are saying. I will not even try to make some sense of this and interpret something, as I will be wrong.
So either you try and rephrase or it's not important anyway and leave it.